Drury Buildings, Dublin 2

On a recent Sunday early evening, we set off to walk to Dundrum, for a bite to eat and a drink. As were walking we changed our mind, checked the Dublin Bus app and seeing a 16 bus was due in a few mins, decided to hop on that and go into town instead. The criteria was that I wanted a cocktail, and something not too heavy to eat so we were fairly open, and wandered around georges street, fade street area. Having heard a lot of great things about Super Miss Sue, we wanted to take a look there, en route, we stumbled upon Drury Buildings… it looked beautiful inside, although a little empty, we walked on thinking we would probably return after checking out another couple options on the street but something about it was calling to us so we walked on a bit and promptly turned back and headed in. Downstairs it is a bar with food options focused on breads, bruschetta, antipasto, charcuterie, cheeses – perfect for what we wanted. However we could also have ordered from the restaurant menu in the bar area.

Drury Buildings has been refurbished to the highest standard, with an industrial feel, the gorgeous tan leather chairs and wood tables, the mix and blend of metal, wood, white tiles and glass is stunning. There’s a great patio / terrace area out the back also, which on a summer day would be perfection! We were totally taken with the whole look and feel so it helped that the drinks and food measured up! Style with a whole lot of substance here…

We settled into a window table, and ordered the desired cocktail – a Negroni for me and for him, a Hendricks Gin & Tonic. Drinks in hand we took a look through the menu… The cocktails are well priced for Dublin city centre, the negroni was €10.90. The Hendricks gin was €6 with €2.90 for a fever tree tonic. The bar menu is so us, I love grazing easy food like this. We ordered the warm rosemary and olive oil focaccia bread to nibble on while we drank our aperitifs. And followed that by ordering the bruschetta e porchetta and the mixed antipasto plate, a selection of meats, cheeses, olives, pickles …and a 2nd order of the amazing focaccia (it’s just €3.50 and I’d go back for it alone!).

The bruschetta arrived first, and is fabulous, warm tomatoes on the bread with the porchetta on top. And then the antipasto platter, piled high with different meats, cheeses, various types of olives and pickles. Both dishes were really well priced, the bruchetta (5 pieces) at €7.50 and the antipasto at €18.50.

We enjoyed a bottle of Montepulciano (priced at €27) with our antipasto and then followed this with dessert, a chocolate pistachio cake and ice cream and another bottle of the Montepulciano so we could linger on and chat.

It was really quiet the evening we were there, our table, and one other table plus a few people sitting at the bar – I’m not sure what wasn’t enticing people in… as other places around it were much busier. Considering this was a rugby Sunday, following the Scotland match, I would have expected there to be more people and this affected the ambiance somewhat.

A group of Scots did arrive towards the end of our evening there, just for drinks, however I’m not sure that’s the atmosphere Drury Buildings want as they were quite loud, singing along while one of them plays the tin whistle. While we are eating dessert and enjoying our wine, this isn’t really my thing (while this was happening, 2 couples wandered in an back out so wasn’t their thing either obviously!)… they didn’t stay long though. This didn’t affect our feelings towards Drury Buildings though – we loved it, such a pleasant place to sit and while away a few hours, chatting and wine drinking with great food. Our total bill came to €114.75 which considering there was 2 bottles of wine, a cocktail and plentiful beautiful food was pretty good I think! We will be back… soon I hope!